By Alphonsus Okoroigwe
Enugu, Nigeria – Edith Nwaro still checks her phone for an alert that will never come.
Last Saturday in Enugu, a middle-aged man asked the POS operator to transfer N50,000, take N2,000 as charge, and give him N48,000 cash. While she was calling out her account number, his phone rang.
“After ending the call, he said it was the doctor, adding that his mother was in the hospital,” Edith said.
“He said he was trying to get money to pay his mother’s hospital bill.”
He showed her his phone screen indicating a successful transfer. But she had not received any alert.
“I told him that I hadn’t seen any transfer alert in my phone. But he asked me to be patient, saying the money would come in,” she said. He blamed weekend network slowness, and pressured her, saying the hospital would stop his mother’s treatment.
“Out of pity for his sick mother, I gave him the money. He then gave me his phone number, asking me to call him if I didn’t get any alert. I called the number and it rang there, and I let him go. This happened last Saturday, and to this moment, I haven’t seen any transfer alert.”
Onyekachi Omeogo, who trades in the city, lost almost half his capital. He started with N150,000.
“Sitting in my shop, a man just drove by asking me to quickly come and give him some money. He asked for my account number to transfer the money, and I gave him.
Tapping an app for a while, he showed me a transfer alert to prove that he had sent the money,” Onyekachi said.
“So, I counted the money and gave him, and he left. That was how I lost N70,000 for a business I started with N150,000. The mistake I made was not going to him with my phone to confirm the payment.”
Angela Iloghalu, who sells foodstuffs and runs POS in another part of Enugu, lost goods and cash worth N47,000 to a man who claimed to be an army major.
“A middle-aged man walked into my shop recently to buy rice, beans, garri, and other food items worth about N37,000. He also asked for N10,000 cash because I do POS business,” Angela said.
She packaged the items and gave him the cash. He showed her a transfer alert on his phone, but nothing entered her account.
“He then said it might be a network problem from either my bank or his. As the delay persisted, he introduced himself as a serving army major and brought out a military ID card. The issue dragged for over an hour that I had to let him go, trusting that he was what he claimed to be. But it’s about two weeks now, and no payment has come. I tried many times to call him but the number he gave has remained switched off.”
Yet, the Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer Daniel Ndukwe said there are a few formal complaints on record.
“There exists little or no report of fake-alert fraud in Enugu State. However, victims of such crimes, whenever they occur, are advised to promptly report to the police for necessary action. The public, particularly business owners, are also urged to exercise due diligence when conducting bank-transfer transactions to avoid falling victim to fraudsters,” Ndukwe said.
The gap between police records and street reality is explained by silence, as none of the three victims above reported to the police. They accepted their losses as a business risk.
POS operators across the city say vigilance is the only shield. Loveth Omelucheta is blunt:
“Whoever that is duped is to blame for being naïve. For me, I must ensure that I see the alert showing real payment in my phone before I let the customer go, no matter how long it takes. If you try to rush me, I’ll ask you to try elsewhere.”
A former operator, Chinonso Adizua, now advocates prevention:
“One good way of stopping this kind of fraud is to insist that every customer uses his bank app or ATM card, not any other app. And while I was in the business, I made sure I confirmed that alerts came from banks before letting customers go.”
Cybersecurity expert Kosisochukwu Ekpundu says technology alone cannot stop it.
“It’s very difficult to stop. It’s just like saying hackers can be stopped from trying to hack. It’s not possible because apps are developing, and script kiddies and hackers keep emerging every day. Social engineering is the way out,” she said.
“This is for people to be aware that frauds like these exist, and always make sure that they confirm from their bank apps or phones before letting anyone go. So, you have to verify that money actually got into your account.”
